A Gig.

Last Friday my present band and I (The Tomfooligans) played our inaugural gig in the backyard of Dave's (rhythm guitar) house. We had fourteen songs, and we played to perhaps 25 people, and I believe most people had a pretty good time. The most important thing was that Dave, who had never played in a band before, had such an exciting time that he stayed up for hours after even Christina and I had left (somehow I am always the last to leave), the exact same experience I had after my first gig. So, it was a success.

My view on the gig was somewhat different from everybody else's. I had a nice time, I'll do it again, but I wouldn't consider it a magic, life affirming experience. It was a gig, we did OK, there was no embarrassment and I think a number of the people who watched us would turn up again providing there was no cover and they knew someone in the band. So why was this not a great experience for me? Other gigs have certainly been great, and some of them have been of equal or lower quality, some of them have been for small numbers of friends. Some of them have been with the same songs in the same venue as the week before.

I think there are a couple of possibilities for my reaction. The first may well be that right now I am inaccurately describing how I felt. I think I probably had a pretty good time while playing, but the rest of the event was less fun than a bar in Portland. Being nice to granny who has told me that the band is God's will takes some of the joy out of an event for me. Having everyone leave by about eleven doesn't help either. But I think actually playing on stage is still really fun, except when I make mistakes.

The second may well be the role that I have in this band. I play mandolin and sing back-up vocals on some songs. I have no more input on the sound of the band or the songs we play than anyone else. I am not the front man, and what I am playing is harder for me to play than anything previously, it takes up more concentration. I think this means that I am not playing a role for the audience, and pretending to be a musician is much of the fun of being a musician. Doing something harder, that requires more attention, and produces a less direct reward will probably reduce the fun of something.

The final reason is probably that the music is not entirely to my liking, in truth, I find it something of a joke band. There are four other people in the band who want to play something between punk and heavy metal, just with irish tunes. Then there's me, trying to play a folk melody through the song to give it some varnish of respectability. It isn't what I would choose to listen to myself.

The above seems something of a negative post, which is a shame. It's good for me to be in a band, it's good to play gigs. this was a positive event, something that made my life better. And the most important thing about it all is that it gives me the reason, and therefore the motivation, to get better at the mandolin. I still think in five years I should actually be able to play the thing properly.

I'll put up a couple of tunes once I work out how to do that.